


Bingo

by Ailette



Category: Primeval
Genre: Fluff, Imported, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-31
Updated: 2009-05-31
Packaged: 2018-06-05 05:44:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6691951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ailette/pseuds/Ailette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a whole day of suffering through 'trust exercises', Nick has trouble remembering why he can't just snuggle up against Stephen in public.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bingo

It was unusually warm for a spring evening in  London . Despite the fact that the sun had almost gone down, it was still comfortable to sit outside in t-shirt and jeans. Not that the temperature was the only unusual thing this evening, Nick mused and lowered himself onto one of the big steps of the amphitheatre. The majority of the ARC’s staff surrounded him, either already sprawling on the sun-heated stone or searching for a good spot to settle down. Trust exercises. Team building. Bonding activities. If he hadn’t seen Lester’s sour face when he’d announced it this morning, he would have been sure their boss wanted to torture him personally. This way, he took some comfort in knowing that Lester despised this whole venture just as much as he did. 

At least when he was still working at the university, he could ditch out of most of these seminars, or dump them on Stephen whenever possible. Surprisingly, Stephen had never seemed to mind and today he was one of the few people who had fun doing ridiculous things like chocolate tasting or jumping down from high places and hoping someone would catch him (not that there was any danger for the guy that half the staff had a crush on). How did any of that help them with their daily job? Nick grumbled and took the time to look around; he hadn’t seen Stephen since before they had divided into small teams and really didn’t want to suffer through the seminar leader’s lecture all on his own. He personally hadn’t met that many Italians, but he severely hoped that man had been banned from his country for his obnoxious and faked cheery demeanour. 

“Cutter!”

Nick turned to see a familiar shape gracefully jumping down steps towards him and smiled. Trust Stephen to track him down in this chaos within seconds.

“There you are,” Stephen said happily and plopped down on Nick’s spread out jacket, using it as an excuse to sit closer than they usually would when in public.

“Thank God you found me,” Nick sighed in relief and offered Stephen his water bottle. “I’m not sure if anyone could have stopped me from strangling that idiot on stage.”

Stephen took a sip and chuckled. “Aww, come on. It’s not so bad. If you think about it, this is actually rather nice. The amphitheatre, the weather…” Capping the bottle and handing it back to Nick, he added in a quieter, almost bitter tone, “Could be very romantic if everyone we work with wasn’t here.”

“Yeah.” Absently, Nick started fidgeting with the small rucksack he’d taken along. The accusation was clear in Stephen’s voice and Nick, not for the first time, felt guilty for keeping this – them – a secret. He wasn’t even sure why they did it; or rather why he’d asked Stephen to keep quiet about it. He’d said something about regulations, trouble with Lester and ‘inappropriate behaviour at the workplace’; all of which made Stephen look at him like his IQ had just sunk below that of a dodo. Still, he’d sullenly agreed, so obviously out of love for Nick that it had made the older man’s heart ache and wonder how he could ever ask something so cruel of him. Asking Stephen to keep a lid on his affections was like asking him to stop being able to tell where an animal had run off to just by looking at its tracks. It came naturally to him and it was a conscious effort to suppress it. Wholly different from Nick who always thought twice about every single movement, always conveying some sort of message with his touch.

Next to him, Stephen sighed and discreetly nudged his shoulder. “It’s just an observation. Don’t make that face. People will think something’s going on,” he added teasingly.

It was Nick’s turn to swat Stephen on the arm. “You’re impossible, you know that?”

“I do.” Stephen nodded solemnly. “But you put up with it ‘cause you think I’m pretty.”

Nick burst out laughing at the way Stephen was batting his ridiculously long eyelashes at him as he spoke, drawing more heads in their direction than he wanted. 

“I see everyone is already in a good mood! That’s fantastic.” Apparently, their seminar leader had finally made his way onto the stage and was now busy flashing his over-the-top smile at Nick and Stephen. Stephen made a very silent retching noise that brought the momentarily frozen grin back on Nick’s face. 

“Now, before we start with our last presentation for the day, we’re going to play a little game.” The man’s cheeriness was bordering on repulsive by now as he switched on some outdoor lights as the sun was quickly vanishing. “Please pick up the piece of card lying next to you. If there’s none where you're sitting, please relocate.”

Stephen pressed one of the paperboard tables into his hand and Nick stifled a groan. Bingo tickets. Fantastic. And apparently, Marco-the-seminar-leader thought of it as a creative idea that wasn’t known in  Great Britain at all. He happily started to explain the rules and history of the game, making Nick wish desperately for an anomaly to appear and spit out a hungry gorgonopsid. Maybe with a preference for Italian.

“You look like you’re considering crossing to the dark side,” Stephen whispered, still looking very amused by the whole situation.

“That obvious, huh?” 

“Nah, just to me.”

They fell back into companionable silence, watching as Marco started calling out numbers and lured people with at least the right numbers to come and sit on stage. After a couple of minutes and about a dozen shout-out numbers had passed, Connor went with a big grin, enthusiastically waving in Abby’s direction and then abruptly straightening up when Marco jumped up the stairs and dragged down their boss. The man would not only never be hired again, he might just end up as a toy for the mammoth if the look on Lester’s face was anything to go by.

Next to him, Nick saw Stephen shudder a little, drawing his knees up in what looked like an attempt to keep warm. Nice as it had seemed at first, the stone and air were now rapidly cooling down. It suddenly felt a hell of a lot harder to just sit there and revel in the quiet pleasure of Stephen’s company and Nick felt his fingers itching to reach out and embrace Stephen, perhaps share some body heat in a very unprofessional manner.

Secretly, he sneaked another glance at his partner and found the hem of his shirt riding up at the small of his back, exposing tanned skin. Without really thinking, Nick reached out and pulled the fabric down, in the process touching the ice cold flesh and shivering in pure sympathy. He wondered briefly how in God’s name Stephen had cooled down this fast, when he remembered one of the stations he’d gone through. The exercise had been to seal one member of the team into a kind of oversized refrigerator and listen very carefully at the door for a knock. The person inside had a stop watch with him to signal the time he should get out again. The whole thing had seemed a little dubious to Nick at the time, now he downright loathed it. Because, of course, going into that thing hadn’t been a very popular idea. And Stephen, being himself, would have taken on the challenge if only to spare someone else the grief. 

This wasn’t right, Nick thought, surprised by the anger so easily bubbling up to the surface when just a minute ago he’d been reasonably happy. But the knowledge that Stephen was uncomfortable and he couldn’t do anything about it… But no, that wasn’t true. He just _wouldn’t_ do anything about it. They should sit here snuggled up and sharing warmth, whispering jokes about the people on stage in each other’s ears and enjoy themselves. No, this really wasn’t right. 

Nick stole another glance in Stephen’s direction, taking in the little tremors and twitches. He was depriving them of a nice evening. Very possibly a lot more than just that, he couldn’t say for sure with the way he’d forbidden the two of them to ever demonstrate anything. And wasn’t that stupid? What kind of a scientist was he supposed to be, exactly? Everybody knew that without experimenting, you could never prove a hypothesis. With a stern nod and a very determined move he wrapped his arm about the younger man’s slim waist, pulling him flush up against his side.

“What are you doing?” Stephen asked, sounding startled though he nearly immediately pressed closer to Nick. Nick snuck his hand under Stephen’s t-shirt and let it rest on the undercooled skin, spreading his fingers to warm it up faster.

“This way, we won’t have to make some kind of big announcement. It’s just more practical, if you think about it.” 

Stephen started laughing quietly, either at the ridiculous explanation or the way the tip of Nick’s ears had turned a deep red, he didn’t know. He didn’t really mind either way, he thought, with an answering smile on his own lips as Stephen angled his head upward to press a soft kiss to the edge of his mouth. He didn’t know whose voice called out ‘Bingo’, but he felt like it should really be him.

**Author's Note:**

> (Originally posted at http://ailette.livejournal.com/42119.html)  
> Beta:fififolle  
> A/N: And... my last prompt for story_lottery (#6). Inspired by a long ago holiday in Italy and an over-motivated and completely incompetent entertainer. There's one exercise mentioned that would never ever happen, but, well. It's not too important, so don't think too hard about it. ;)


End file.
